Ligand (LGND) Breakout! Message Board

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Biotech / Medical : Ligand (LGND) Breakout!

LGND 202.42

+0.6%

11:45 AM EST

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To: Hippieslayer who wrote (14535)	2/10/1998 11:10:00 PM
From: Henry Niman	Read Replies (1) of 32384

I think that they were having trouble recruiting for APL. It sounds like one Phase III is going forward. APL is a small market and they will be competing with another retinoid, Vessinoid (tretinoin) by Roche (actually the Phase III trial listed by the NCI is a head to head against Vessinoid). I think that LGND's strategy is to get approval and then start picking up off-label use as the drug goes through trials for larger indications. KS is a bigger market than APL and it's not a special case (Vessinoid and Panretin work very well initially because most APL patients have a transclocated RAR). Approval for KS will provide a much stronger argument for use against a wide range of tumors (which do not have a rearranged RAR). KS patients are currently treated with toxic chemicals like Daunarubin (sp?) or Taxol. The delivery has been improved with liposomes, but its not a mild treatment and its not oral. The chemo is not that specific. I think that the current treatments tend to kill rapidly growing cells such as those in the bone marrow. Cancer patients frequently die from infection rather than the tumor, because the treatment destroys the immune system. Ovarian data is due out soon, but I not sure if its for Panretin, Targretin, or both. Breast is showing promise, but I thought that it was with Targretin. Other trials I'm not sure about, but I think that pediatric trials were Phase I not that long ago (they are still listed that way at the NCI site). The treatment shows a slow response, so the response rate continues to increase as patients are treated longer. So far Panretin gel is up to 48%, but will probably continue to increase as patients stay on the drug beyond 16 weeks.

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